Crisis of Conscience

by Raymond Franz

  So you see, dear friends, that the Boards of Directors of the New York corporation and of the Pennsylvania, as constituted back there, they had respect for the office of the president and they did not treat the president of these organizations as a poker-faced, immobilized figurehead presiding over a society, a do-nothing society.

  From the start of the talk I had thought this was the goal aimed at and so it came as no surprise to me, though the language used did. From this stage of the presentation, the tone of the talk now softened and he went on to highlight that particular day, September 7, 1975, saying:

  And do you know what that means? According to this diary, Hebrew diary, from the land of Israel [referring now to a small booklet he held in his hand], why this is the second day of the month Tishri of the lunar year 1976, and do you know what that means? That here on this day of your graduation, why it is the second day of the seventh millennium of man’s existence here on earth. Isn’t that something? Isn’t that something grand [applause here] that the opening day of the seventh millennium of mankind’s existence is signalized by the operation of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in full compliance of the terms of its charter sending out the 59th class of the Gilead School for missionaries.

  Jehovah God certainly has blessed it, and by its fruit, why, it has become known as an approved agency in the hand of Jehovah God and so that there is no need to challenge the right and the authority of this Society to send out missionaries.

  And, friends, notice this, that just as God used the Antioch congregation to send out the two of the most outstanding missionaries of the first century, Paul and Barnabas, so today Jehovah God is using the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the New York corporation, to send out further missionaries and they are determined to keep on in that course. That’s something very, very gratifying.11

  There could be no question but that in the vice president’s mind someone had “thrown down the gauntlet” in a challenge to the corporation presidency. By this talk the battle lines had been carefully and emphatically drawn. The corporation had its sovereign terrain and it was off limits to the Governing Body. The sad effect of all this was that many of his fellow members of the Governing Body were distinctly cast in the role of aggressor and openly displayed as disrespectful of the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ vested in this “approved agency,” the corporation.

  The guests present, parents and friends of the graduating class, were generally mystified by many of the things said and by the whole thrust of the talk, the biting language at times employed. The Bethel Family members, though having a vague idea of difficulties because of comments made by the president and vice president when acting as head of the table, now had reinforced their suspicion that there was indeed a quarrel going on in the Governing Body, apparently a power struggle.

  The contrast between this talk and the talk using the metaphor of the dog and its tail, given four years previously (in which the “dog” “represented the Governing Body and the “tail”—which should be wagged and not do the wagging—represented the corporation) could hardly have been greater. They were given by the same man, yet they seemed to go in totally opposite directions. I would be less than honest if I did not admit that I left the auditorium that day feeling not only deeply disturbed but also somewhat ill. It seemed that God’s Word was something that could be made to fit one argument when circumstances made it advisable, and an opposite argument when circumstances were different. This disturbed me more than any other aspect of the matter.

  As in Nathan Knorr’s case, so, too, certain factors help in understanding Fred Franz’s actions. In late 1941, when Judge Rutherford lay on his deathbed at Beth Sarim in San Diego, California, he had called three men to his side: Nathan Knorr, Fred Franz and Hayden Covington. Rutherford told them that he wanted them to carry on after his death and that they should “stick together” as a team. That action was reminiscent of Pastor Russell’s “Will,” though here given orally rather than in writing. Twenty years later, in 1961, in writing the book “Let Your Name Be Sanctified,” Fred Franz alluded to that occasion when discussing the account of the passing on of Elijah’s prophetic mantle (“official garment” in the New World Translation) to his successor Elisha.12 He presented this as a prophetic drama and stated:

  When the Governing Body discussed the proposed reorganization, the vice president made direct reference to this assignment from the dying Judge Rutherford. I have no doubt that Fred Franz felt that a certain “mantle-izing” had occurred at that time. As has been stated, Nathan Knorr succeeded Rutherford to the presidency. Hayden Covington, the big Texas lawyer who defended Jehovah’s Witnesses in many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, was asked by Knorr to become vice president, this despite the fact that Covington made no profession then of being of the “anointed” class. (This shows that neither Judge Rutherford nor, initially, Nathan Knorr felt that being of the “anointed” was essential for directing the work worldwide.) Covington’s own testimony, given during the Walsh case in Scotland, indicates that it was not until some correspondence came in a couple of years later asking how this could be, that he and Knorr talked about his not being of the “anointed” and Covington decided he should resign.14 Relations between the two deteriorated as time went on and Covington eventually left the headquarters staff to go into private practice.15 Fred Franz was elected as vice president following Covington’s resignation in 1944.

  Though the three heirs to Rutherford’s deathbed transference of responsibility (which, incidentally shows there was no “governing body” in operation) had now reduced to two, there was evidently still a definite feeling that a role in fulfilling prophecy was in effect. In 1978, at a large convention in Cincinnati, Ohio, when Fred Franz, now the Society’s president, was asked to speak to the audience of over 30,000 persons about his life experience as a Witness, he chose to spend the bulk of the time discussing his relationship with the now deceased Nathan Knorr, particularly emphasizing Judge Rutherford’s dying words to them. It can very truthfully be said that the talk took on the aspect of a eulogy as Fred Franz described Knorr’s qualities and stressed that he had stuck by Nathan Knorr right to the end “just as the Judge had urged” and that he was proud of having done so.

  Perhaps even more illuminating as regards this view of being “mantleized” was an expression made that same year, 1978, during a session of what was now the Writing Committee of the Governing Body. Present were Lyman Swingle, Ewart Chitty, Lloyd Barry, Fred Franz and myself. A commentary on the Letter of James was being written by Ed Dunlap, and Fred Franz had asked for an adjustment to Dunlap’s discussion of James, chapter three, verse 1, where the disciple says:

  Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment.

  The material Dunlap had prepared said that this evidently was a warning against unqualified individuals seeking to serve as teachers simply because of a desire for prominence. Fred Franz asked for the elimination of most of the material but gave no particular explanation for his objections except to ask in writing:

  If Jesus gave some to be teachers, how many was he to give? And since Jesus does the giving, how could James tell the men “not many of you should become teachers”? How did James himself become a teacher?

  Since I had been assigned to oversee the project of the commentary’s development, at the Committee hearing I asked Fred Franz to clarify his objection and tell us just what he thought was meant by this text. He stated that he believed it meant that it was God’s will that there be just a few men in the entire Christian congregation who could rightly be called “teachers.” I inquired who such would be in our time. Speaking very calmly his reply was:

  Well, I believe that I am. I have been here at headquarters for over fifty years and have been involved in the field of writing and research during most of that time, so I believe that I am. And—there are some other brothers throughout the earth who are.


  This response was another occasion when the effect was so startling that the words were, in effect, burned into my memory. I was not the only witness to them since they were spoken before the other three members of the Writing Committee. By his remark we had had identified for us only one teacher on earth by name: Fred Franz. Who the others were, we were left to speculate. As I told Lyman Swingle on more than one occasion thereafter, I regretted not having pursued the matter further by asking for names of the other “teachers” of our time. But the response left me momentarily speechless.

  In the same material in which he presented his objection to Dunlap’s material, President Franz had also suggested the addition of the following points in the forthcoming commentary (here presented in a photocopy from page 2 of his write-up, containing his initials):

  This brought memories of his Gilead Graduation talk in 1975 when he had made clear his conviction that Christ Jesus had personally raised up Pastor Russell to carry out a special role. This material three years later indicated that he felt such personal, individual selection by Christ was continuing in other cases, with the result that only a few select persons were raised up as special “teachers” for the congregation.16

  The above-suggested material bringing Russell into the picture was not used, however, and the information found on pages 99 to the top of 102 in the Commentary on the Letter of James is a replacement of Dunlap’s material, which I wrote so that President Franz’s objections would be met. It was in a certain sense a refutation of his view since Jesus’ words at Matthew, chapter twenty-three, verse 8, “But you, do not you be called Rabbi, for one is your teacher, whereas all you are brothers,” seemed to be completely contrary to the idea of a very small number of men forming a somewhat exclusive group of specially selected “teachers,” the chosen few. The rewrite I submitted was approved in committee and published.

  There is another reason why there was such an evident contradiction between certain bold, forceful statements made in print and the comparatively timid, puny reality actually existing at the time. The reason is that the officers of the corporation could rationalize that a small, representative change or reform would suffice as substitution for, or a “token” of, a larger, genuinely meaningful change.

  As an example of this, the mere fact that in 1971 President Knorr had decided to relinquish his monopoly of the chairmanship at the Bethel dining tables, sharing it with the other members of the Board of Directors and also had decided to allow them to serve on a rotational basis as chairmen of the Governing Body sessions was viewed as all that was needed to demonstrate that the corporations (and their officers) were in fact directed by and submissive to the Governing Body and that the ‘dog was indeed wagging the tail.’ No other tangible action or significant change had taken place in the authority structure, nor was it viewed as necessary to fulfill the impressive picture painted.

  That Fred Franz could so view matters seems evident, particularly so since, surprisingly, over twenty years earlier, back in 1944 he had written articles for the Watchtower that contained all the basic points on elders and overseers that appeared in the Aid book.17 Despite this, no change whatsoever took place back then in the congregational arrangement. But it had been said, it had been published, and this was viewed as enough.

  In those articles, 1944 was presented as a marked year in Bible prophecy, and this mainly because an amendment had been passed whereby voting rights in the corporation would no longer be based on a $10 donation as previously. Instead a maximum number of 500 persons, selected by the corporation’s Board, would be the only ones with a right to vote. Anyone who has attended an annual meeting of the Watch Tower Society where elections of Directors take place knows that it is extremely routine and that voting is mainly a mere formality. The bulk of the voting members know virtually nothing of the inner workings of the organization and have neither influence, voice or control as to the policies and programs of the organization. The actual business part of the meeting usually takes no more than one hour; then it is over until another year passes.

  Yet the adoption of this amendment as to voting members was presented in articles in the Watchtower of December 1, 1971 (written by Fred Franz) as being an occasion of such significance and magnitude that it became a focal point in the explanation of the prophecy of Daniel 8:14, regarding the 2,300 prophetic days connected with the ‘bringing of the sanctuary into its proper condition.’ I doubt that one Witness in a thousand, if shown that verse today, would ever connect it up with 1944 and the corporation amendment made then. Yet that remains the official explanation of that prophecy to this day. It was another example of the ability to take an event of relatively minor effect and then to clothe it with symbolic value as being of great significance.

  On August 15, 1975, the Committee of Five finally presented its findings and recommendations. On behalf of the committee I prepared a document of 45 pages, setting out the historical and, particularly, the Scriptural reasons for recommending that the basically monarchical structure should change, plus 19 pages outlining a system of Governing Body Committees for directing the different areas of activity. The initial document ended with the following paragraph:

  All the deliberations of the committee of five have been made with much prayer and careful thought. We sincerely hope that God’s spirit has guided in the results and pray that they will be of some assistance to the body in reaching a decision. It is hoped that the adjustments recommended, if approved, will contribute toward an even more pleasant, peaceful relationship among the members of the Governing Body, helping to eliminate the tension that at times has surfaced in our meetings. (Ps. 133:1; Jas. 3:17, 18) It is also hoped that the recommended adjustments will, if accepted, serve to enhance and make yet more prominent the headship of Christ Jesus and the spirit of genuine brotherhood found among his disciples—Mark 9:50.

  Those words expressed my sincere feelings and hope. I could not see how they could be viewed as a challenge to Christ Jesus’ direction of his congregation.18

  The material came before the Governing Body, and in the session on September 10, 1975, it was now obvious that by far the majority favored the basic change recommended. However, a second Committee of Five was assigned to make final adjustments.19 The Body did not select either the president or vice president to serve on this committee since their opposition had been clearly stated.

  The president’s comments at this point mainly expressed doubt as to the practicality of the change. The vice president, however, made plain that he viewed the presentation as an “attack on the presidency.” When the president’s own motion was read out to him, he replied that Brother Knorr had made that statement “under duress.”

  Lyman Swingle expressed himself as feeling that all members of the Body had respect for the president and did not view him as a “poker-faced, immobilized figurehead of a do-nothing Society,” here using the vice president’s language at the graduation exercises. He stressed that the president could still use his energy, drive and initiative within the proposed arrangement. Later in the discussion, the vice president insisted that the Committee of Five’s document did just what he had said was being done. He stated that at the coming annual meeting his vote would be for the corporation powers to continue and said that his talk at the Gilead Graduation owed to a feeling of obligation to let the brothers know this so that they would not feel that a “hoax” had been practiced on them.

  After the second committee completed its recommendations and submitted these on December 3, 1975, the matter came down to a final vote.20 The Chairman called for a show of hands. All but two raised their hands in favor of the motion to implement the recommendations.

  The two who did not raise their hands were the president and the vice president.

  The following day the Body met again. The vice president said he had taken no part in the discussion the day before since he “didn’t want to have anything more to do with it”; to participate would mean he was in favor and he “conscientiously cou
ld not do so.” He referred repeatedly to Nathan Knorr as the “chief executive” of the Society, the “chief executive of the Lord’s people on earth,” and said that “Jesus Christ is not down here on earth and so is using agents to carry out his will.”

  Dan Sydlik, a square-built, deep-voiced man of Slavic descent, said he would have been “happy to see Brother Knorr or Brother Franz turn to the Scriptures or even to the Watchtower publications to support their position but that was not the case.” Leo Greenlees remarked that if all the congregations were glad to submit to the direction of the Governing Body, why not the corporations also?

  The president basically confined his remarks to saying that he thought the corporation would act “parallel” to the Governing Body but that, instead, the proposed arrangement subordinated the corporation, adding, “which is probably correct.” The vice president said he too thought the two organizations were going to run parallel (perhaps like Antioch and Jerusalem?) and said: “I never had in mind what the Governing Body wants to do now.”

  It was obvious that the president and vice president were maintaining their opposition. Lloyd Barry, his voice strained and shaking with emotion, now pleaded with them that they make the matter unanimous since it was obvious that it would pass anyway.

  Another vote was taken and this time President Knorr raised his hand and the vice president followed suit.

  Four years later, in 1979, in a Governing Body session, Fred Franz, now president, stated that his vote for the change back then was made “under duress.” I would agree. When Nathan Knorr conceded, Fred Franz felt compelled to join him. He went on to say that he had not been in favor of the change then and that from that point forward he had “just been watching” to see what would result.

  Contrast the above information with the idealistic picture Watch Tower publications seek to convey. Quoting Isaiah 60:17, which gives Jehovah’s promise to replace ‘bronze with gold,’ ‘iron with silver,’ and to appoint “Peace as your overseer and Righteousness as your taskmaster,” the Watchtower of March 15, 1990 contains articles describing “progressive improvements” and “continual refinements” in organization, as if organizational changes have come smoothly, in an atmosphere of peace and harmony. They present the fiction that a governing body was operative throughout Watch Tower history.